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Surgery--A Second Go Around

Thu, 03/29/2007 - 22:32
Has anyone undergone a second surgical resection? I've experienced seizure recurrences three times since my RTL in June of 2006. The program director at the hospital that performed my surgery has advised me to consider surgery again if Keppra (the drug I am switching to now) does not prevent further seizures. At what point does one consider repeating the arduous process of entering an epilepsy monitoring unit, having the WADA test, undergoing a resection, etc.?

Comments

Re: Surgery--A Second Go Around

Submitted by dgpatel on Sun, 2007-09-30 - 02:41
Hey Paul, I had my RTL in July and I started having seizures after the surgery. I visited my Neuro Surgeon & he said he had patients before that he had to operate on again. Doc said as long as I am willing to , they would be more than happy be willing to find a resolution to this problem. As a matter of fact, I am currently emailing you from my hospital bed!!! I had to repeat the process by coming in and do a long term video monitoring to make sure where the focal point is. Even though I hated the thought of coming back in! He said either it could have spread to the left side from the surgery or there might be some tissue that still needs to be removed on the RTL. Let me know if I can help at ALL..... email me at dgpatel80@gmail.com as well. be well, David -DP

Re: Re: Surgery--A Second Go Around

Submitted by tan_the_fan on Sun, 2007-09-30 - 15:04
Just a very general note, I changed to Keppra from Teggretol about 2 yrs ago now and initially it worked really well for me. I did find however that the higher dosages were making me very nautious and generally very aggressive - which i found very odd.. but is is actually a known affect of Keppra according to my dr... Not to discourage you at all! just to advise you to keep an eye on the side affects in the higher dosages before making your mind up about whether or not to choose meds over surgery... I've now changed to Lamictal and it's working a lot better for me. Hope this helps,

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